Author Archives: Mirela Roznovschi

Presentation-Old Romanian Fairy Tales

The present book of English translations by Mirela Roznoveanu, titled Old Romanian Fairy Taleswith illustrations by Alexandra Conte captures and conveys great narratives of the Romanian folklore. This is a book for all libraries that carries children’s books with collections of cultural studies, folklore, and cultural anthropology.

In Pinky the Brave, a King has three sons and one of the most beautiful gardens on earth. In this garden there is an apple tree with golden apples, but the King has never been able to taste them because every year they are stolen. Many heroes have tried to catch the thief but they have not succeeded, and among them there have been even two sons of the King. Finally, Pinky, the youngest prince, decided to try himself to catch the thieves and from this point on he engages in incredible adventures. Soon he finds himself close to an abyss, the portal to the other world. Pinky has the courage to go down, and once there, he encounters three palaces belonging to three dragons. And this is only the beginning of his trials.  

http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Pinky_the_Brave.jpg

Fairy Princess Ileana is the story of the daughter of an old king without male heirs; disguised as a brave prince, she goes to serve another powerful king. On the road, the princess disguised as a brave young prince obtains a magic horse, the brother of the magic horse of her old father.  She also finds a golden tress lost by Fairy Princess Ileana. From this moment on the fairy tale will uncover a path no other fairy tales have touched upon before.

http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Fairy_Princess_Ileana.jpg

Fairy Princess Ileana

Fairy Princess Ileana

In Shinylocks the Brave the entire kingdom of the Red King is immersed in darkness because the ogres had stolen the sun and the moon. The Red King has promised his daughter and half of his kingdom to the one able to recover the sun and the moon from the ogres but all who have tried had been defeated. Shinylocks the Brave starts his own quest, with the Red King’s permission and the way he will succeed is startling and unexpected.

http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Shinylocks_The_Brave.jpg

Shinylocks The Brave

Shinylocks The Brave

There is a Green King who rules at one edge of the earth in The Story of the White Moor; and this King has only girl princesses. This King writes to his brother, whose kingdom is at the other side of the earth, and asks him to send him the bravest of his sons in order to leave him the throne of his kingdom. The Green King’s brother tests one by one his sons before departing and only the youngest prince is able to pass his father’s tough trials. Before leaving, his father advises him to stay away from two kinds of evil: the glabrous one, lacking hair all over his body, and the red man. Helped by his magic horse, the youngest prince engages in his journey. However, he is tricked by the devilish Glabrous One (who forces him to change places) and enforces him latter on to deal with the mischievous Red King. The White Moor survives incredible challenges, meets loyal friends, and claims victory at the end.

http://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/White_Moor2.jpg

Old Romanian Fairy Tales captures the imagination, conveys important lessons about morality and responsibility, and strikes a chord of deep patterns on which our civilization was built. Readers will encounter fabulous fairies, Prince Charming, witness battles with dragons, betrayal, competition, and love. The book has beautiful imaginative color illustrations; this is a book from which children and mature people would immensely benefit. To add more to the uniqueness of this book:  these fairy tales were never translated before into the English language.

You can order the book @  http://www.xlibris.com/bookstore; 1-888-795-4274 ext. 7879 
http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0111908017/Old-Romanian-Fairytales.aspx

Biblioteca Românească

Lecturi moderne, eseuri, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1978; D.R. Popescu. Monografie critică, Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, 1983; Civilizaţia romanului. Eseu despre romanul universal, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, vol.I – 1983, vol. II -1991; Totdeauna toamna, roman, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Romnească, 1988; Viaţa pe fugă, romanBucureşti, Editura Sirius, 1997; Învăţarea lumii, poeme, Bucureşti, Editura Fundaţiei Luceafărul, 1998; Platonia, roman, Bucureşti, Editura Cartea Românească, 1999; Timpul celor aleşi, roman, Bucureşti, Editura Univers, colecţia Ithaca, 1999; Către o cultură legală virtuală, eseuri, New York, Transnational Publishers (2001, 2002); Born again–in Exile, poetry, New York, iUniverse, 2004; The Life Manager and Other Stories (Administratorul Vietii si alte nuvele), New York, iUniverse, 2004; Civilizatia romanului. O istorie a romanului de la Ramayana la Don Quijote, Cartex, 2008; Old Romanian Fairytales, Xlibris, 2008;  Life On the Run, XLibris, 2018.

Modern Readings, essays, Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing House, 1978; D.R.Popescu. Critical monograph, Bucharest, Albatros Publishing House, 1983; The Civilization of the Novel: A History of Fiction Writing from Ramayana to Don Quixote. An essay on comparative literature, Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing House, vol.I -1983, vol. II – 1991; Always in Autumn, novel, Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing House, 1988; Life on the Run, novel, Bucharest, Sirius Publishing House, 1997; Apprehending the World, poetry, Bucharest, Luceafărul Foundation Publishing House, 1998; Platonia, novel, Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing House, 1999; The Time of the Chosen, novel, Bucharest, Univers Publishing House, 1999; Toward a Cyberlegal Culture, essays, New York, Transnational Publishers (2001, 2002);Born again–in Exile, poetry, New York, iUniverse, 2004; The Life Manager and Other Stories, novellas, New York, iUniverse, 2004; The Civilization of the Novel: A History of Fiction Writing from Ramayana to Don Quixote, Bucharest, Cartex Publishing, 2008;  Old Romanian Fairytales, Xlibris, 2008;  Life On the Run, XLibris, 2018.

Mirela Roznoveanu aduce în literele româneşti trăiri şi experienţe noi, ceva surprinzător şi care nu s-a mai scris încă. Aduce, nu o dată, amărăciunea trecutului nostru recent, dar şi o privire tranşantă şi o intransigenţă morală ce ţin de verticalitate şi de asimilarea unui mediu profund democratic ce respinge jumătăţile de măsură. Pe de altă parte, romanele Mirelei Roznoveanu sunt romane adevărate, în sensul că oferă cititorului acea lume de imposibil care îl obsedează şi pe care nu o poate trăi decât prin intermediul jocului ficţional. La acest “conţinut” incitant se adaugă eleganţa şi rafinamentul unei scriituri atente la mixtura percepţiilor, la meandrele sensibilităţii şi la complexitatea relaţiilor umane. (Dan Cristea)

Mirela Roznoveanu brings to the Romanian letters surprising feelings and experiences, about which no one has written so far. She has evoked the sorrows of our recent historical past from a critical and a moral perspective, whose origin can be traced to her innate integrity. The circumstances of her present life, in the midst of a deeply democratic social environment, where people have little or no use for half measures, have also contributed to her intransigent vision. On the other hand, Mirela Roznoveanu’s books are genuine novels in that her readers satisfy their craving for living in an otherwise obsessive and unattainable world by attending to the intricacies of her fictional games. Her writing adds distinction and refinement to such a problematic. Roznoveanu’s prose is alive with her capacity of capturing the logic of perceptions, the fluctuations of sensibility, and the complexity of human relationships. (Dan Cristea)

Platonia este o carte foarte frumoasă. Am retrăit nelinişti ale propriei mele adolescenţe, scăldat într-o nostalgie de o intensitate pe care nu credeam că o mai pot trăi. Suntem persoane diferite la vârste diferite, dar mulţi dintre noi ucid şi îngroapă pe cei care au fost în trecut – de aceea este remarcabil să citesc o carte în care nimic nu pare să fi fost uitat. Iar cititorul se îndrăgosteşte, desigur, de Platonia. Desigur, autorul trebuie să o omoare câtă vreme mai sunt doar câteva clipe înainte de Decembrie 1989 (care ar fi eliberat-o sau nu ar fi eliberat-o pe Platonia) şi acest fapt subteran măreşte patosul pe măsură. Am citit că Tolstoi a fost nesigur până aproape de final dacă să o omoare pe Anna sau nu. Să se fi întâmplat la fel cu Mirela? (Andrei Codrescu)

Platonia is a very beautiful book. I relived some of the torments of my own adolescence and bathed in the nostalgia of an intensity that seems so far away. We are truly different people at different ages, but most of us kill or bury these people – so it’s remarkable to read a book where nothing seems forgotten. And the reader does, of course, fall in love with Platonia. Of course, the author had to kill her since it’s only a few moments before December 1989 (which might or might not have freed her) and this subterranean fact increases the pathos measurably. I read that Tolstoy was unsure until the very end whether Anna was going to die. Perhaps Mirela too? (Andrei Codrescu)

Links to Videos&Interviews&Speeches

Honored Listee of Who’s Who 125 Anniversary issue.

Links to videos, interviews, speeches&articles:
The Internet Archive videos;  1, 2, 3, 4
Recent Contributions (literary criticism @journalism):
-30 years from the miners invasion: Bucharest, June 13-15, 1990
Interviewed by Bianca Schulze–A Magic Journey to Things Past (1/28/2020)
Mirela Roznoveanu in dialog with Aurora Cornu
-ROMANIA: 30 Years after the Fall of Communism Speech delivered at the anniversary of the 30 years from the collapse of communism in Romania. The event was hosted by The Romanian American Chamber of Commerce, the Iuliu Maniu Foundation, the Romanian Television of New York and New York Magazin. The celebration of the 1989 Romanian Revolution and Fall of Communism took place on Saturday, October 26, 2019, 3 PM, at the 3 West Club 51st Street, New York City. This event moderated by Justin Liuba (President of the Iuliu Maniu Foundation) featured Dennis Deletant (historian, Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies at University College, London, and Visiting Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies at Georgetown University), Constantin Rauta (NASA expert, former anti-communist dissident), and Mirela Roznoveanu (writer, journalist). See the Romanian version.
–“A Few Notes on Romanian Literature as World Literature”, edited by Mircea Martin, Christian Moraru, and Andrei Terian (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 374 pages. See here the Romanian version published by Caiete Critice, nr. 10, 2018, pp 39-55 Câteva însemnări despre Literatura română ca literatură a lumii.
–VLACHICA- Mountaintops Above a Stormy Sea of Contending Empires. Philologica Jassyensia XIV, nr. 2 (28), 2018, 247–262. The article –a preamble to a historical novel written in English –explains to the English-speaking audiences the history of the Armân population from the south of the Danube, called Vlach, and its relationship with the Valah population from the north of the Danube. It is as well discussed the origin of the Armân language and of other languages from the Oriental Romance Language family. In today’s world, when the original population of the Balkans, from the south of the Danube, Dalmatia, Macedonia (FYROM), etc. called Vlach does not exist on any geographical maps of Europe, this conversation is a necessary restitution act.
–“The Scholar and the Poetry.RSAA, 1:2018.Aerul Depărtării” by Noemi Marin. Bucharest: Tritonic Publishers, 2017.
–“Greece Travelogue (October 4-18, 2017).” IN: RSAA, December 2017. http://thersaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/2017Greece_Travelogue_2.pdf
–“An Accidental Passage to China,” (p. 9) and “Remember: Queen Anne of Romania” (September 18, 1923- August 1, 2016) A Royal “Thank You”, p. 17. The Romanian Studies Association of America (RSAA), Volume 27.2 http://www.thersaa.org/; http://www.thersaa.org/newsletter.html
–“Lectura, cititor, carte”, Vatra Cultural Magazine (3/21/2017) “Mind, Memory, Metaphor, and Literature”
–LITERATURE AND THE METAPHORIC UNIVERSE IN THE MIND by Nicolae Babuts. (Book review) Transaction Publishers,  2015  http://thersaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Mirela-Roznoveanu-Review.-Nicolae-Babuts.-Literature-and-the-Metaphoric-Universe-in-the-Mind.-2015..pdf

Interviews for RTVNY:
Serban Chelariu (Aired 1/12/2020);
Traian Chelariu (about with Serban Chelariu) Part I (Aired 2/23/2020) Part II (Aired 3/1/2020);
-Round-table: 30 Years from the Fall of Communism (Part I aired 11/17/2019) Moderator. Guests: Constantin Rauta and Dennis Deletant; (Part II aired 11/25/2019)
-Valery Oisteanu and the Romanian avant-garde Part I (aired 08/04/2019); Part II (aired 08/16/2019);
Mihai Vinereanu, Uncomfortable truths about Romanian language (aired 07/07/2019)
Matei Varga and the fame of a piano player (aired 06/09/2019) broadcasted on Channel NYCTV-life; WNYE
-Andrei Codrescu Part I (aired 5/5/2019) and Part II (aired 5/12/2019)
Dennis Deletant, Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC; Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London. (Aired 2/17/19)
Justin Liuba, President of “Iuliu Maniu” Foundation, NYC (March 8, 2018)
Domnita Dumitrescu; Noemi Marin I; Noemi Marin II; Constantin V. Negoita part I; part II; More at the RTVNY and on Internet Archives        (video archive of notable Americans of Romanian origin):

Old Romanian Fairy Tales @ Salmagundi Art Club, Friday, June 29, 2012
Romanian Fairy Tales Lecture Evening  ICR NY, April 2014.
Interviewed by Bianca Schulze in the Children’s Review
Interview Anca Pedvis with Mirela Roznoveanu
Interview Mariana Sipos with Mirela Roznoveanu part 1
Interview Mariana Sipos with Mirela Roznoveanu part 2
Interview C. V. Negoita with Mirela Roznoveanu
http://web.archive.org/web/20190407102113/https://www.law.nyu.edu/news/Mirela-Roznovschi-AALL-award 
Serban Chelariu (Aired 1/12/2020);
Traian Chelariu (about with Serban Chelariu) Part I (Aired 2/23/2020) Part II (Aired 3/1/2020);
-Round table: 30 Years from the Fall of Communism// Masa Rotunda la New York (Part I): 30 de Ani de la Caderea Comunismului in Estul Europei 11/17/2019) Moderator. Guests: Constantin Rauta and Dennis Deletant; (Part II): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W4NAqDkLgg&t=10s
-Valery Oisteanu and the Romanian avant-garde Part I (aired 08/04/2019); Part II (aired 08/16/2019);
Mihai Vinereanu, Uncomfortable truths about Romanian language (aired 07/07/2019)
Matei Varga and the fame of a piano player (aired 06/09/2019) broadcasted on Channel NYCTV-life; WNYE
-Andrei Codrescu Part I (aired 5/5/2019) and Part II (aired 5/12/2019)
Dennis Deletant, Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC; Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London. (Aired 2/17/19)
Justin Liuba, President of “Iuliu Maniu” Foundation, NYC (March 8, 2018)
Domnita Dumitrescu; Noemi Marin I; Noemi Marin II; Constantin V. Negoita part I; part II; More at the RTVNY and on Internet Archives: https://archive.org/details/@vlachica

Links to Vetiver blog of Romanian-American Writers from New York retrieved in the Wayback machine:
http://vetiver.weblog.ro/2009-07-06/866192/Rom%E2nii-in-Balkani.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20090914145026/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/2009-07-06/866192/Rom%E2nii-in-Balkani.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20210219140025/https://vetiver2.wordpress.com/2020/12/28/mirela-roznoveanu-o-epopee-a-vlahilor/
http://web.archive.org/web/20071221022938/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20071226125217/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080311011116/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080525065506/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20081016114929/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080915103910/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://www.observatorcultural.ro:80/O-istorie-a-romanului-de-la-Ramayana-la-Don-Quijote*articleID_20306-articles_details.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20081230222713/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20090301103650/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20090501000451/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20091016025128/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20100809140738/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
http://web.archive.org/web/20101208130730/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/

https://web.archive.org/web/20070429054524/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100809140738/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100104130442/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20101009033428/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20101208130730/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110112225455/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110821080237/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20071226125217/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/
https://web.archive.org/web/20080313051653/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/page!2.html
Armânii in the Balkans http://vetiver.weblog.ro/2009/07/06/romnii-in-balkani/#axzz44wb2llgc
Bangalore in ploaie; India I ; India II ;India III ;India IV http://vetiver.weblog.ro/2007/12/19/bangalore-in-ploaie/#axzz44wb2llgc

Book Signing Events

Book Signing Events and Excerpts  from Speeches/Lansări si fragmente din discursul vorbitorilor
Bucharest — June 5, 2005 (
with Vasile Andru and Titus Popescu, book launching event, “Mirela: A Paradox“)

Bucharest — June 5, 2005 (with Vasile Andru and Titus Popescu, at my book launching event)

Bucharest — June 5, 2005 (with Vasile Andru and Titus Popescu, at my book launching event)


New York –September 21, 2004
Gallery@ 49
(322 West 49th St.) cordially invites you to the launching of Mirela Roznoveanu’s latest books, Born Again in Exile and The Life Manager and Other Stories, Tuesday, September 21, 2004: 6:30 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.

Guest speakers at the event:
William James Austin
Nina Cassian
Annie Gottlieb

Interview Anca Pedvis with Mirela Roznoveanu

Interview Anca Pedvis with Mirela Roznoveanu

Interview Anca Pedvis with Mirela Roznoveanu

Gallery@ 49 (322 West 49th St.) va invita la lansarea ultimelor aparitii editoriale semnate de Mirela Roznoveanu: The Life Manager and Other Stories (proza) si Born Again—in Exile (poezie), care va avea loc marti, 21 septembrie ora 6:30.

 

“I would like to take the book, The Life Manager and Other Stories (iUniverse, 2004), and send it back to that little girl that I was, to tell me that women can have the greatest of adventures. Because Mirela is an adventurer par excellence. And in this book, the very first story—so many of them begin with meeting a stranger, or starting to talk to a stranger, and then doors open, and worlds open, and abysses open, and you fall in, and you have adventures that you could never have dreamed of.
The first story, the heroine just gets a glimpse into another person’s life, into a man’s life, talking in a coffee shop. And in the last story, “The Life Manager,” going to a restaurant with a stranger opens up worlds of time and space, and really becomes time travel, space travel.  I felt like I was going to take off into another dimension.  I thought I might be in Warsaw, or Rio, or…And the question really is whether, I’m wondering as I read, has she been in all these places in the flesh, or only in the imagination?  She takes us there in the imagination, and it feels as if we are there in the flesh, because of the incredible power of description, the incredible love for nature so sensuous,  which is in some ways so much more reliable than the human love always there.
They are magnificent stories. And I admire Mirela so much for making that leap across the ocean. I wrote down some words from one of her stories that I thought were “suspended, vulnerable, and daring.” That’s Mirela. She is like the woman on the flying trapeze. Suspended over the Atlantic. And I admire her so much for having always been ready to take that leap or to let herself be pushed. And I admire her very much for taking the leap to be published here in America, and to fight for her stories. And insist that they be read, and seen, and that they not sink into the ocean without a trace.
The little girl within me is thrilled and convinced that, as she says, “Women are the courageous ones … the most powerful and intelligent beings on earth.” Annie Gottlieb

Cele mai multe din nuvelele din această carte încep printr-o întîlnire cu o persoană necunoscută şi ciudată. Cu secvenţe din vieţile unor persoane ce intersecteaza personajul principal. În acel moment, noi universuri se întrevăd, abisurile par să se deschidă la picioarele noastre. Cititorul devine martorul unor întîmplări extraordinare ce se petrec în locuri la care nici nu poţi măcar visa. Să fi fost Mirela în acele locuri, în carne şi oase? În orice caz,  prozatoarea ne duce acolo şi acum cu puterea imaginaţiei. Devenim martorii în carne şi oase ale acestor întîmplări datorită puterii incredibile a descrierii. A dragostei nemăsurate pentru natură, atît de senzuală încît este mai puternică decît însăşi iubirea, întotdeauna prezentă. Ultima nuvelă, The Life Manager, deschide multiple nivele de timp şi spaţiu, devenind o aventură filosofică în timp şi spaţiu. O admir pe Mirela Roznoveanu pentru saltul ei peste oceanul Atlantic, într-o altă limbă şi cultură...  Există în cartea ei o remarcă a unui personaj despre ce înseamnă să fii <suspended, vulnerable and daring> – suspendat, vulnerabil şi curajos. Mirela este asemenea unei femei zburând pe un trapez suspendat deasupra oceanului. Mirela este un aventurier par excellence.  Nuvelele ei sunt extraordinare…“  Annie Gottlieb

            Annie  Gottlieb is the author of Do You Believe in Magic? Bringing the Sixties Back Home (Times Books, Fireside, 1987-8). Coauthor, WISHCRAFT: How to Get What You Really Want, 1979,1983 (backlist bestseller, just relicensed by Ballantine for the third time), A RETURN TO INNOCENCE, 1998 (Regan Books, just released in paperback under new title DEAR PATRICK); principal author, THE CUBE: KEEP THE SECRET, 1995 (still backlisting, over 60,000 copies, 6 translations, bestseller in German), SECRETS OF THE CUBE, 1998 (3 translations). Freelance critic and writer since 1970 for the New York Times Book Review and Op-Ed page, the Nation, the Village Voice, Utne Reader, and nearly every major national women’s magazine, currently “O,” the Oprah Magazine.

William James Austin: “How could I not celebrate Born Again In Exile, given that many of the poems collected in the first sequence, composed in English, are set in the center of the universe, New York City.  My town!

The first stanza of the opening poem, “53rd Street,” reads as follows:
My previous and future lives
look like 53rd Street in Manhattan
with its MOMA and at the corner
the startling snobbish 5th Avenue
with Madison Avenue — the savage one — one block away
and further down Park Avenue with bulls running
under its sidewalk.

For me a dead on description of the area, its culture, its surfaces and subways.   I read these lines and I am there.  In “Golding Lounge” and the title poem, the essences of Washington Square Park and the extended NYU area are similarly evoked.

And this marvelous assessment of hard working New Yorkers riding the subway:
they know what life is about
where the sky is
and where the ground.

In one of those Dirty Harry movies, Clint Eastwood remarks that “A man must know his limitations.”  Mirela says it better.  Her own limits of observation, I am certain, have yet to be reached.

And all of this is accomplished by way of a disarmingly simple style, as if nothing very important is being said — when, in fact, everything said is crucial to a time, a place, a life.  The style holds constant, even when the challenge is one of translation, of capturing in English the Romanian tongue, its tasting of Romanian soil and sensibility — even when the focus is on “the Communist dictatorship, the repression,/ the failed revolution.”

These images Mirela culls from the landscape of our senses, whether urban or rural, skip across the periphery of attention, quietly moving to the center of our emotional lives.  She is a craftsman par excellence.  But more than that, she makes us feel.  In an age of digital impulses, that, my friends, is a very rare pleasure.

Within the tradition of polished verse, Mirela Roznoveanu has accomplished an astonishing marriage of Romantic elements.  The elegance of Brecht and Rilke converses with the occasional surrealism of Rimbaud, flavored by a Baudelairian melancholy which moves the reader between the streets of New York City and ancient landscapes both historical and mythological.  A good portion of the text is translated from the Romanian [versions by Heathrow O’Hare], and these especially seem masterfully rendered.  At a time when formalist experimentation dominates much of the poetic scene, it is wonderful to have a collection that reaffirms the beauty and craft of the image within the geography of self discovery.”  William James Austin

“…În tradiţia versului măiestru alcatuit, elegant şi rafinat, Mirela Roznoveanu a realizat o sinteză extraordinară a elementelor romantice. Eleganţa lui Brecht şi Rilke comunică adeseori cu suprarealismul de tip Rimbaud, totul avînd savorile melancoliei baudelairiene care îl transportă pe cititor fie pe  străzile oraşului New York fie in privelişti antice, ambele atît istorice cît şi mitologice…  Într-un timp în care experimentele formaliste domină o bună parte din lumea poeziei, este un adevărat privilegiu să ai în faţă o culegere de poeme care reafirmă frumuseţea versului şi meşteşugului imaginii ca fiind esenţiale în geografia lirică a descoperirii de sine. William James Austin

William James Austin lives in New York City. He is a poet and essayist. To date he has published four collections of poetry and theoretical essays: 1 UNDERWORLD 2 and 3 UNDERWORLD 4 (S Press, now distributed by Koja Press); 5 UNDERWORLD 6 and 7 UNDERWOR(L)D 8 (Koja Press); plus the monograph, A DECONSTRUCTION OF T. S. ELIOT: THE FIRE AND THE ROSE (Salzburg University Studies). He is currently Associate Professor of English and Philosophy and the Artistic Director of the Visiting Writers Program at the State University of New York, Farmingdale.

Interview Mariana Sipos with Mirela Roznoveanu, Bucharest 1999.

 

Reviews and References

 

Mirela - un paradox, de Titu Popescu, 2005.

Mirela – un paradox, de Titu Popescu, 2005.

Book Reviews/Recenzii:
ADRIANA FOLTUŢ: CAPTIVE IN FREEDOM OR, LIFE ON THE RUN BY MIRELA ROZNOVEANU
Marcel Cornis-Pope about The Civilization of the Novel
Civilizatia romanului comentata de Paul Cornea
Jean Parvulesco about Les temp de ceux qui sont elus
-Le temps de ceux qui sont élus (Jean Parvulesco) pdf
-Stefan Stoenescu despre Timpul celor alesi/The Time of the Chosen
The Life Manager and Other Stories (Annie Gottlieb)
Timpul celor alesi (Constantin Eretescu)
Timpul celor alesi (GeoVasile)
-Platonia (Andrei Codrescu, Dan Cristea)
Platonia  (C. Eretescu)
Platonia (Ion Ţugui)
-Platonia (Alina Lupse)
Dictionarul Scriitorilor Romani din Statele Unite si Canada  (Aurel Sasu)
Civilization of the Novel vol 1 (Mihai Ungheanu)
Civilizatia romanului, vol II (Ion Tugui)
Invatarea Lumii (Titu Popescu)
Viata pe Fuga&Platonia  (Daniel Stefan Pocovnicu)
-Mirela – un paradox (Mircea Diaconu)
-Al. Piru despre Timpul celor alesi, 1988 
Gabriela Negreanu despre Timpul celor alesi, 1988
-Titu Popescu, in Autori si Climate, 2009
-The Life Manager and Other Stories
-Elegies from New York City, 2008
-Civilizatia romanului, Editura Cartex, 2008
-Born Again–in Exile


Romanul Viaţa pe fugă, semnat de Mirela Roznoveanu, este – aflăm din prezentarea de pe coperta a IV-a – romanul dizidentei intelectuale, în fond o dramă care ridică trăirile şi reflexivitatea eroinei la rangul de morală a existenţei. Un roman al marilor tensiuni interioare, cu rezolvări imprevizibile, de o realizare artistică de excepţie ce trebuie să figureze printer operele de marcă ale genului.” Această “arhitectură epică superior organizată” – cum şi-ar numi, probabil, autoarea însăşi opera (folosind instrumentarul conceptual propriu teoreticianului romanului, care a fost distins cu Premiul “Lucian Blaga” al Academiei Române pentru impresionanta lucrare Civilizaţia romanului) –  în jurul “navei principale” reprezentată de tema libertăţii, pune în evidenţă soliditatea sau fragilitatea, după caz, a “contraforţilor” tuturor utopiilor de care ne e dat într-o viaţă să fugim. Dacă “civilizaţia romanului este orizontul de tensiune dintre forma integratoare şi civilizaţie în ansamblul ei”, aşa cum constată Mirela Roznoveanu în singulara sa istorie a romanului, atunci, parafrazînd, viaţa pe fugă este orizontul de tensiune dintre o comunitate opresoare şi lume în întregul ei. În acest orizont se află, de altfel, toată literatura exilului.” Vasile Gogea
https://vasilegogea.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/gogeas-blog-express-of-books-primul-vagon/
Biblioteca Românească
“While reading Elegies from New York City I have paid attention to the note that indicates which poems are translated and which were written in English. I think Mirela is now probably that rare thing a bilingual poet. Her English idiom has blossomed splendidly-a strange and beautiful flower with roots that seem to go almost to Indo-European, yet with the rich vocabulary and cadence that NYC (as well as her scholarship) gives to a true listener.

It seems to me too that Mirela’s world-view is deepening-or perhaps that is an insensitive word, ‘widening’ is perhaps better, to assimilate her North American experience. I am thinking particularly of ‘Continuum’ (though I know this is translated), ‘In the Amethyst Cave,’ and the long ‘ New York ‘-the latter two capturing (in my hearing) a certain essence in US life that is hidden to most Americans. ‘On the Conversion of Beast to Human” with its chilling last lines intensifies this feeling for me. In a less political but equally powerful mythic way I admire ‘The Stagecoach Driver’ and ‘The Phoenix Ashes,’ with their huge timeless evocations of legends and landscapes that our more popular culture reserves for very limited historical purposes. And the description of baseball in ‘The Baseball Field’ (so un-American!) resonates strongly for me and charms me.

The personal voice is terribly human, with a sadness and sometimes desperation that any honest caring human will recognize instantly. I find it deeply comforting. My only fear is that people (especially in the US ) routinely reject this kind of truth, they have been indoctrinated to feel ‘happiness’ at all costs, despite the misery of their lives. But I do agree with the blurb on the back cover that says ‘I can’t imagine anyone with any sensitivity reading her work, and not experiencing a strong emotional response.’ The great elusive human questions never leave Mirela Roznoveanu.”  Terry Hegarty
Terry Hegarty is an editor and musician based in Boston , MA.

Nonfiction and Journalism

International Legal Collections at U.S. Academic Law School Libraries by Camelia Naranch (about Globalex etc) https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wp.nyu.edu/dist/5/1928/files/2022/10/International_Legal_Collections_atUSA_MirelaR.pdf 

Books/Cărţi:
Toward a Cyberlegal Culture, essays, Transnational Publishers: Ardsley, New York, 2001, 2002.
Către o cultură legală virtuală, eseuri, New York, Transnational Publishers, 2001, 2002.

Interviews:
-Round-table: 30 Years from the Fall of Communism (Part I aired 11/17/2019) Moderator. Guests: Constantin Rauta and Dennis Deletant; (Part II aired 11/25/2019)
-Valery Oisteanu and the Romanian avant-garde Part I (aired 08/04/2019); Part II (aired 08/16/2019);
Mihai Vinereanu, Uncomfortable truths about Romanian language (aired 07/07/2019)
Matei Varga and the fame of a piano player (aired 06/09/2019) broadcasted on Channel NYCTV-life; WNYE
-Andrei Codrescu Part I (aired 5/5/2019) and Part II (aired 5/12/2019)
Dennis Deletant, Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC; Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London. (Aired 2/17/19)
Justin Liuba, President of “Iuliu Maniu” Foundation, NYC (March 8, 2018)
Domnita Dumitrescu; Noemi Marin I; Noemi Marin II; Constantin V. Negoita part I; part II; More at the RTVNY and on Internet Archives        (video archive of notable Americans of Romanian origin): https://archive.org/details/@vlachica

Articles/Articole:
Citeva analize recente ale comunismului romanesc (2007)
-Din America cu Dragoste: Responsabilii cu Diaspora (pdf) (Ancheta Revistei “22”).
Din America cu dragoste: Zile tulburate. (pdf)
De la docilitate la teroare ideologică.  (Le livre noir du communisme) (pdf)
Din nou despre cartea neagră a comunismului.(pdf)
Cui îi este frică de Pacepa? (pdf)
A ne aminti sau a ierta? (pdf)
Mitizarea Statului? (pdf)
Securitatea&Posteritatea(Cartea Albă a Securităţii) (pdf)
Foamea în grînarul Europei. (pdf)
Armenia- o ţară asediată (pdf)
Tismaneanu, Stefanescu
Romania Liberă: activitate;
The Romania Libera journalists’ dissidence; Editorial 1990;
Despre Mirela: Glasul (1990);Romania Mare (iunie 1990); Romania Mare (august 1990); Romania Mare (mai 1991); Romania Mare (1998).
Cronica la Schimbarea la fata a Romaniei de Emil Cioran (Romania libera, Decembrie 1990)
     
Bangalore in ploaie; India I ; India II ;India III; India IV 
Armânii in Balkani: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20100129104246/http://vetiver.weblog.ro:80/2009/07/06/romnii-in-balkani/
Toward a Cyberlegal Culture: (Book Reviews)
International Journal of Legal Information
Law Library Journal
Legal Information Management
Origini: Romanian Roots(RO) (Eng)
About GlobaLex in Spectrum; IJLI; Un blog pour l’information juridique
-Legal Information Management, Volume 14, Issue 04, December 2014, pp 300 – 304. The 10th Anniversary of GlobaLex: A Portal Dedicated to Foreign, Comparative and International Law Research http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9461199&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1472669614000607

Mirela Roznoveanu: A pleca din Romania … Capitol din Revoluţia din depărtare, 2011. (Cristina Hermeziu, coordonator) 

Toward A Cyberlegal Culture. Transnational Publishers, 2nd ed. 2002

Toward A Cyberlegal Culture. Transnational Publishers, 2001, 2002.

Globalex and The Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases under my authorship at the NYU Law Library in the Wayback/Internet archives (1999-2013):
https://web.archive.org/web/20111203030832/http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/#
https://web.archive.org/web/20050206233006/http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/
https://web.archive.org/web/20050308165440/http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20050311085951/http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/country.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19990117060024/http://www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html

Old Vetiver in the Wayback Machine
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://vetiver.weblog.ro/*

Interview difuzat duminica 11 aprilie, 2010 la Romania Radio Actualitati, ora 21:30,  realizator dna Pusa Roth


AALL FCIL Dane Wade Outstanding Service Award, 2013

Poetry

Elegies from New York City, Koja Press 2008

Elegies from New York City, Koja    Press 2008

William James Austin: “Mirela Roznoveanu’s poetry is “innovative” where it counts, I think — the imagery is really stunning. I can’t imagine anyone with any sensitivity reading her work, and not experiencing a strong emotional response.” https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wp.nyu.edu/dist/5/1928/files/2023/12/Origini-Austin.pdf

Elizabeth Gamble Miller: “What I find fascinating are the startling images gleaned from such a breadth of human experience. The poetry is of such depth and complexity while not in the least hermetic. It is as if the image is the precise one to stir the conflicting emotions that permeate the poems. Mirela Roznoveanu’s world travels and breadth of literary experience carry a resonance that inspires further exploration into the poetic line. Without actually reading the Romanian I find the reading of her poetry and of Heathrow O’Hare’s translations as seamless. This is quite a remarkable accomplishment.”

Born Again In Exile, 2004.

Born Again In Exile, 2004.

Born Again–in Exile, iUniverse, 2004.
Book review, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry (eng); Book review, Luceafarul (Ro)
My Legend; Arracacha; November’sCleaning Up Souls , Climax, MRI, Cosmetics in Blackbox; February Night in Calque;
New Poems in POEZIA; A Night in March/Noapte de Martie; Minimalist concrete poetry in Logolalia; Quantum in
S
aint Elizabeth Street.

Învăţarea lumii, poeme, Bucureşti, Editura Fundaţiei Luceafărul, 1998. Apprehending the World, poetry, Bucharest, Luceafărul Foundation Publishing House, 1998.

Invatarea Lumii

Invatarea Lumii, 1998.

Manuscrisul a fost propus spre publicare in 1984, pregatit pentru tipar in 1990, trimis la topit in 1991.)
Book Review/recenzie (ro) in Luceafarul;  Convorbiri Literare.

Critical Responses to Apprehending the World, a volume of poetry rejected by the state censors of Romania in 1984,and 1991, subsequently published in 1998.
This is the voice of a poet who identifies herself with Iphigenia by redeeming herself, transcending personal drama and sacrifice, and triumphing in the realm of culture and creation.  NINA CASSIAN
Love and death speak to each other in Roznoveanu’s poems, just as they do in the world’s greatest poetry.     TITU POPESCU

Mirela Roznoveanu’s poems have a polyphonic structure: their mythological garb enables the political thrust underlying her impassioned lament for her homeland and her inner state of exile, which thereby anticipated her expatriation.   GEO VASILE

If you go on holiday to the seaside, and take this book, you will discover that each piece in it requires several leisurely readings for them to really sink in. Then only, will you bask in its beauty and meditate on what the Sea tries to convey through seagulls and Ka birds, about life and death, despair and grace.    AURORA CORNU

To understand with the body, to take knowledge as it comes, to try keeping one’s head up midst impending doom: Accept everything that’s given you, / even in jest. Whatever you receive / will be to your advantage …  And so one advances toward atrocious stridency when one’s anatomy is used as a means for getting situated in the center of things. The lyrical self is variously tortured, spat at, bitten, and devoured, tortured and dismembered, crucified even.     MARIAN POPA

Translating Mirela Roznoveanu one cannot help being reminded of intensities and flights of the imagination from such distinctive poetries as those of Emily Dickinson or Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop or Sylvia Plath.     HEATHOW  O’HARE

The doubling at work in her novels is traceable in her poetry as well…The solitariness of the selfhood and an uncertain way out are the two nights between which tosses the captive waking dream of transfigured matter. It’s like being in a dreadful labyrinth made up of anxieties, gory states of melancholy, hints at the vanity of things, and disasters of loneliness—all accepted with a sense of an impending doom.   AUREL SASU

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wp.nyu.edu/dist/5/1928/files/2023/12/Origini-Austin.pdf

Essay and Literary Criticism

Prefața Civilizația Romanului vol.2, Cartea românească 1991 editia princeps in pdf

Note despre Poezia lui Șerban Chelariu Unde Nimic Nu Este Ceeace Pare
Zaruri și Clepsidre. Poeme. Amphion, 2022. Postfață de Florin Daniel Dincă
”ALTERNANȚE” 4 (37 ) 2022 München – Garmisch-Partenkirchen
https://s18798.pcdn.co/mroznoveanu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1928/2022/10/Mirela_Roznoveanu_SerbanChelariu_Alternante.pdf

 

Civilizatia romanului, vol. 1,1983.

Civilizatia romanului, vol. 1,1983.

D.R. Popescu, monografie, 1981.

D.R. Popescu, monografie, 1981.

CIVILIZAȚIA ROMANULUI — PREFAȚĂ la Vol. 2, 1991

Civilizatia romanului, 2008.

Civilizatia romanului, 2008.

Lecturi Moderne, 1978.

Lecturi moderne, 1978.

Civilizaţia romanului. O istorie a romanului de la Ramayana la Don Quijote. (The Civilization of the Novel: A History of Fiction Writing from Ramayana to Don Quixote.) Bucuresti, Cartex, 2008. (2nd revised edition).
Civilizaţia romanului. Eseu despre romanul universal. Arhitecturi Epice (The Civilization of the Novel.Epic Architectures) vol. II, Editura Cartea Românească, 1991.
Civilizaţia romanului. Eseu despre romanul universal. Radacini. (The Civilization of the Novel. The Roots) Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, vol. I, 1983.
D.R. Popescu. Monografie critică. (Monograph) Bucureşti, Editura Albatros, 1981.
Lecturi Moderne (Modern Readings). Essays. Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing House, 1978.

Fiction

 

Epic Stories by Mirela Roznoveanu, 2020

Epic Stories by Mirela Roznoveanu, 2020

A Magic Journey to Things Past, by Mirela Roznoveanu, Illustrated by Alexandra Conte. December 2019

A Magic Journey to Things Past, by Mirela Roznoveanu, Illustrated by Alexandra Conte. December 2019.

Life On The Run, 2018

Life On The Run, 2018

Viata pe Fuga, 1998

Viata pe Fuga, 1997

Timpul Celor Alesi, second edition, 1999.

Timpul Celor Alesi, second edition, 1999 (Totdeauna toamna, 1988)

Platonia, 1999.

Platonia,1999.

Totdeauna Toamna, 1988.

Totdeauna Toamna, 1988.

Timpul celor Alesi, 1999.

Timpul celor Alesi, 1999.

The Life Manager and other Stories, 2004.

The Life Manager and other Stories, 2004.